Plug not being pulled on Games for Windows Live

Microsoft will not apparently be pulling the plug on Games for Windows next week as rumored. Instead Microsoft has announced that they will continue to support already existing content on Games for Windows Live, but you will not be able to get any updates that way or make any purchases.

Microsoft also reaffirmed its commitment to PC gaming in the years ahead, but didn’t make any announcement other than to say that we should expect to hear more about their PC gaming strategy in the future.

The news puts the service in a holding pattern, but to what end we have no idea. Some publishers to be prepared for the closing of GFWL have been migrating their titles over to Steam and taking advantage of the Steamworks platforms.

It is possible that Microsoft may migrate the entire GFWL platform into something else in the near feature or rebuild it from the ground up at some point. We have heard that Microsoft wants to get back into PC gaming in a bigger way, but it is unknown how they are planning to do so. What we do known is that GFWL in its current form will not be part of that plan, which means to us that they are planning something else. We will just have to wait till Microsoft is ready to announce its new PC gaming strategy.